


Prioritize

by tommino



Category: MacGyver (TV 2016)
Genre: CPR, Drowning, Gen, Hurt!Mac, Self-Sacrifice, Whump, it's a simple fic that does exactly what it says on the tin, look man Mac drowns and then Jack has to un-drown him
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-11-02
Updated: 2018-11-02
Packaged: 2019-08-16 18:25:10
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,922
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/16500449
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/tommino/pseuds/tommino
Summary: Mac and Jack find themselves in high water, hands cuffed behind their backs and bodies quickly growing exhausted. Mac manages to pick Jack's locks - but not fast enough to save himself.__just a lil prompt challenge from BeautifulLights





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

  * For [beautifullights](https://archiveofourown.org/users/beautifullights/gifts).

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt for this drabble was:  
> | topic: drowning  
> | setting: canal  
> | challenge word: “fork”

.

 

The canal water isn't even moving _fast_ , is the worst part. It's just deep - the bottom buried too far down to touch and the walls sloping up too sharply to climb. Jack bobs along beside him, sputtering for another breath every few seconds. His TAC gear drags him down, and the handcuffs won't let him reach up to unlatch the deadly weight.

 

Another eddy washes over Mac's head, pushing him underwater and making his leg muscles burn to propel himself back to the surface. He breathes in more water than the last time, breaking through with a choking gasp. Jack wastes precious air to call his name in alarm. How much longer can they expect to tread water with hands cuffed behind their backs??

 

Mac grips resolutely at the small piece of metal in his numb fingers. While his feet kick, his hands focus on bending one tine of the cheap fork - the only item he was able to grab off the table before both agents were being pushed backward into the canal. The metal is slowly curving into something he can use, and Mac presses harder. He only needs one small piece; just enough to apply tension and unlock the cuffs. Out of the corner of his eye, he sees Jack dip below the water again, taking too long to come back up. The older agent finally emerges with a painful cough, spitting water and curses. They don't have much longer. _Prioritize._

 

Mac kicks forward, bumping himself into Jack and tugging at his partner’s wrists. Back to back, Mac’s able to fit the tine into the handcuff lock, fingers scrabbling as he tries to hold it in place amid their motion. The water slips over his head again. He kicks once on instinct, and the jerky movement nearly makes him lose the fork entirely. Mac’s gasp of alarm brings only water, burning into his lungs as the current pulls at his exhausted legs.

 

He pushes the tine harder, metal pressing painfully into his palm as he twists furiously to find the right angle. Mac holds a breath, making himself just buoyant enough to stop kicking for a moment. The lock pops softly under the water. A metal cuff slides free from one of Jack’s hands, and his partner crows in triumph. Jack’s free, he’ll be okay.

 

“Atta boy, Mac!! How in the hell did you manage th-”

  
The rest of the sentence is swallowed up by water in Mac’s ears, a choking pressure settling on his chest as he slips beneath the surface again. He tries to kick, but his overworked muscles refuse to start moving again. He sinks - a vague splashing behind him the last thing Mac registers before his tunneling vision blinks to dark.

 

.

 

.


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> The prompt for this chapter was:  
> | a resounding chorus on tumblr of PLEASE CONTINUE THIS lol

.

 

.

 

Jack feels the lock click softly under the water, and his hands are finally, exhilaratingly  _ free. _ He can’t help but give a triumphant cheer at the relief brought on by just one sweep of his arms. Boy Wonder has come through yet again.

 

“Atta boy, Mac!! How in the hell did you manage that magic trick?” Jack’s fingers fumble slightly with the velcro on his TAC vest, but he’s quick to shrug the whole thing off. Waste of a good combat kit, but he feels gallons lighter already. He rotates to face Mac, who’s probably out of his own restraints by now anyway.

 

“Y’know I’ve always said ya must have a touch of Houdini in your bloo-” Sharp confusion sticks the words in Jack’s throat. 

 

No Mac. Just bubbles.

 

_ “Shit,” _ Jack says in one quick burst, air punched out of his lungs. He pulls in a deep breath to refill, and then wastes no time diving under the waves after his partner. 

 

Mac drifts a few feet down, legs barely moving. Shoulders jerk weakly as his wrists strain against the handcuffs behind his back. Jack’s fear compounds when he realizes there are no more bubbles coming, and he kicks harder against the water that seemed so determined to pull him down seconds ago.

 

Fear shifts to panic when the blonde stops moving entirely. His head lolls back in the water, eyes blank when they catch a beam of light filtering into the canal. It’s the most frightening thing Jack has ever seen in his goddamn life. He scoops an arm around Mac’s chest and yanks them both back to the surface.

 

Jack’s head breaks the waves with a sputtering gasp, but Mac is silent. No choking inhale or coughing word of thanks, just the soft pressure of his head rolling onto Jack’s shoulder. Jack tries shaking him a bit, squeezing his partner as best he can.

 

“Mac. Mac c’mon.” Shore, they need to get ashore. Jack starts paddling sideways, careful to keep them both above the water. “Kid you gotta tell me you’re okay here, I always get real worried when you’re quiet. Either means you’re up to something or you’re- you’re hurt.”

 

Jack can’t look back over his shoulder, has to focus on tugging Mac’s limp weight toward an upcoming maintenance ladder. The slow current works against them now, nipping at Mac’s limbs and threatening to steal him away even as Jack clings to the slippery metal rungs. His partner’s body goes from alarmingly weightless to unbearably heavy as soon as they leave the water - nothing but dead weight pressed against Jack’s side as he hauls them onto flat ground. 

 

He glances around, years of training instinct making him clear the scene. They’ve drifted far enough down the canal that they’re in an isolated area now. No threats visible, but no one to flag down for help either. Their satellite phone, comm units, any tracking device Riley might hunt down...  everything is sitting on the bottom of the canal. Jack turns back to Mac, tapping frantically at the side of his face. He’s not breathing.

 

“No nonono, Mac please.” Jack presses two fingers to clammy skin, pushing hard against the pulse point in his neck. Nothing. Jack feels his own heart stutter in response. “Don’t you dare.”

 

He tries to flip Mac onto his back, but Mac’s arms are still tangled in the handcuffs behind him. The kid took off his partner’s cuffs first, Jack realizes, and swallowed enough water to send himself unconscious in the process.  _ Goddammit Mac. _

 

Jack can’t start CPR like this; he needs to undo the restraints somehow, and fast. A flash of silver dangling at Jack’s wrist reminds him of the one material still at his disposal. Moving quickly, he positions the tip of the open handcuff into one of the chain links holding Mac’s cuffs together. He grabs a rock and doesn’t bothering thinking about how much it will hurt if he smashes his own hand like this.

 

Three thuds later, the widening strand of metal pops open the thinner loop of the chain. The two cuffs separate with a harsh snap as Jack rolls Mac flat onto his back. He kneels beside his unmoving partner, placing the heel of one shaking hand in the center of the blonde’s still chest and pressing his other hand on top of it. 

 

_ Elbows straight, shoulders above your hands.  _

 

Jack has been trained for this, done it plenty of times before.

 

_ Apply downward pressure, hard, compressing a third of the chest. _

 

CPR has saved thousands of lives. It will save Mac’s too.

 

_ Release your weight, let the heart refill with blood. Keep a steady pace. _

 

He just needs to get Mac’s heart beating again.

 

“Dammit Mac don’t you do this to me,” Jack huffs, already out of breath from the repeated motion. He feels a splintering crack under his fingers and nearly sobs. Mac’s ribs are breaking. 

 

He can’t stop though, knows that the broken bones will only make the compressions easier. Another rib snaps - a muffled thud-pop against his palm - and Jack feels the last of his energy sink into the dirt. His compressions weaken, grief and exhaustion making him useless for a moment. He pauses, dropping a hand to Mac’s neck. Jack forces his own racketing heartbeat to quiet, to focus on the soft thrum of blood under his fingertips.

 

There’s a pulse. A streak of hope burns through Jack’s veins, bringing with it a crashing new wave of adrenaline. His voice slips out strained and desperate. “That’s it kid, come back to me now.” 

 

Mac’s chest is still motionless, no rise and fall to push the water from his lungs. Jack leans forward to check his airway, Mac’s skin startlingly cool to the touch. He needs oxygen, now. 

 

Jack forces himself to take a gasping inhale, raising Mac’s chin and tilting his head back. Two strong puffs of air lift the blonde’s battered ribcage, but Mac doesn’t give any sign of continuing the motion. His eyelids have cracked slightly open, now. Sightless blue irises glint from between Mac’s lashes. Jack has seen too many dead soldiers before.

 

The older agent curses, swiping at his own burning eyes before moving back to compressions.

 

“I’m gonna breathe for you as long as it damn well takes, Mac, so I swear to god you better open your eyes. C’mon brother.” Thirty chest compressions, two more breaths. Jack can’t think of how long it’s been. Can’t stop to wonder how many minutes a brain can go without oxygen. “Dammit Mac don’t be stubborn!!”

 

Jack’s arms feel like they’re going to give out, like he can’t possibly keep this up any longer - when Mac suddenly jerks with a heaving gurgle. Blue eyes go wide, blank stare wiped away in an instant. Canal water bubbles up from between his lips, and his whole body contracts in a choking spasm to clear his lungs. Jack lets out a breathless shout. His hands scrabble automatically to tilt Mac onto his side, rubbing circles into the small of his back as the blonde upturns his stomach.

 

“There we go, easy now Mac, I gotcha. I’ve got you.”

 

Mac is shaking, chest rattling with a series of wet, hacking coughs. It’s the best sound Jack has ever heard. He’s breathing, Mac is breathing again.

 

His partner finally goes still with a painful wheeze, resigned to small tremors as his body comes back online. Bright blue eyes flit frantically across their surroundings. Jack runs a hand through Mac’s damp hair to get his attention, to hold his gaze in one place with a shaky smile that Jack can only hope is reassuring.

 

Mac calms at last, grimacing as he inhales again. One of his hands moves to his chest, no doubt feeling the sparking pain of broken ribs. Jack carefully intercepts him.

 

“Smarts, don’t it? That’s what you get for scarin’ me so bad, you knucklehead.” The tears in Jack’s eyes steal most the fire from his words. He tries not to remember the feeling of desperately throwing his weight onto Mac’s chest over and over, willing to break bone for any sign of life. His voice softens. “Almost thought I lost you, brother.”

 

His partner's lips quirk into a wistful apology. “Sorry,” Mac croaks.

 

“Well don’t go apologizin’ about it til we get you patched up. Then we’ll have a good long talk about you deciding to unlock my cuffs before your own. What were you thinking, dude?” Jack doesn’t really expect an answer to his rant; instead looking around for a road or a payphone or a convenient carrier pigeon he can grab to send an extraction message to Phoenix. 

 

But Mac shifts on the ground, wrapping a shivering hand around Jack’s wrist like it’s important.

 

_ “Prioritizing.” _

 

_. _

 

_. _

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> thank you dear sweet Allie for beta-ing, and thanks to wolfy, outcast, and whumpvault for the request to keep going. I'm very suggestible with these things. Lights, I'm ready for round 4 anytime >:3
> 
> If you want to read more MacGyver drabbles only posted to tumblr, [you can see them all right here!](https://tomminowrites.tumblr.com/tagged/macgyver-drabble)


End file.
